However far we want
by radio-dammit
Summary: Before the FAYZ, Drake and Diana get a "talking to" from the counselor, leaving them to find ways to be kinder to each other. Who knew it would go this far... R&R please!
1. Chapter 1: First Day

**Alright, it'sa me, writing a fanfic for Gone. Yep, that's right, and now I get to write from different people's POV. Yipee. But it's going to be third person, because I like to stick with the POV that the actual story is written in, so yeah. **

Diana stood, looking up at the tall buildings that made up the school that she loved and hated.

To her, Coates represented apprehension, frustration, agony, but also new beginnings. She'd become a new person since she first walked through the heavy set wooden doors on her very first day.

She looked around at everybody, new faces and old, swirling around her. There were the ten year olds staring up at the Academy like it would bite them, and there were the old faces, yelling, talking, and laughing with one another. Diana smiled, remembering her first day. She had been ten then, but still knockout pretty. Lots of guys had tried to talk to her, girls too, but they fell back when she lashed out at them with her mean words. Then Caine had come up and sat with Diana at lunch one day, and they became friends. But then Caine met Drake. Diana didn't like Drake. There was just something about him, something that made her _want_ him, but he was so mean, she could never give in to that longing.

Caine nudged her elbow. "Diana?" He asked. They had come by bus together, since Diana's parents just wanted her gone from them as soon as possible and Caine wanted to be with Diana.

"Yeah?" Diana said, shaking her head as if to clear it.

"Do you want to go and bring our stuff up to the dorms?" He asked, looking down at her.

He had grown over the summer, she was sure of that. When they had been about the same height in June, he had a good 4 inches or so on her now.

"Okay," She replied, just to make him happy. And maybe going up to her dorm would let her not have to see Drake Merwin.

But of course, that was when Drake appeared out of nowhere, smiling his big shark grin and tossing his shaggy dirty blond hair out of his eyes.

"Hiya Caine!" He said, dropping the duffel bag that was on his shoulder. He half-waved to the car speeding away, which must have held his dad, who was more afraid of him than the fifth-graders at Coates.

And that's saying something.

"Hey, Drake. How was your summer?" Caine asks, ignoring the fact that Drake ignored Diana. He usually did, unless they were fighting.

"Good, good. I found a new favourite pastime." Drake began, still smiling his sharks' smile.

"Yeah?"

"Lighting butterfly wings on fire." Drake smiled, before tossing his head back and laughing. Somebody who didn't know Drake Merwin would have thought he was kidding. But Diana and Caine both knew that he probably did this all summer, when his father told him that he wasn't allowed to beat up the other kids in the neighbourhood.

"Hullo Drake." Diana said, not liking to be ignored. Drake looked down at her. It was hard to tell if he'd grown or not, but he'd always been at least 7 inches taller than her.

"Hi Diana. How was your summer?" Drake asked, oddly formal.

"It was fine. Lots of getting drunk with the neighbourhood teens, hooking up, and bikinis." She said, more to irk Caine than anything else.

And it worked, too. She felt Caine stiffen beside her, and smiled.

It was going to be a long year.

Caine picked up the suitcase and backpack that held his clothes and school supplies for the year as Drake hoisted the duffel onto his shoulder and Diana struggled with her huge purse and two suitcases. Drake rolled his eyes at Caine.

"Here, I'll help you." Caine said, taking one of the suitcases from her. The thing was really heavy. "Oh, God, what's IN this?" He asked, struggling to open the heavy door to the academy.

"Just clothes and shoes, stupid." Diana replied snarkily.

As Drake went to the front desk to get his and Caine's dorm placement as well as Diana'a, Caine stood with the girl herself.

"So what did YOU do over the summer?" Diana asked Caine boredly.

"Ate innocent children and read _Great Expectations._" Caine replied drily.

"And how was that lovely book? I've heard it's good." Diana shot back.

"It was alright, but nothing beats _Thirteen Ways to Torture a Girl so she'll Go Out With You." _Caine said.

"I thought you hadn't published that yet." Diana retorted.

Caine was about to fire back when Drake came over with three slips of paper. He handed one of them to Diana and one to Caine.

Caine looked at the paper. _Caine Sorren,_ it said, _Dorm 28b, third floor._ Wow. He was on the third floor this year.

"28B?" Drake asked hopefully.

"You got it." Caine answered, and highfived Drake. On the rebound, Drake accidentally smacked a 12 year old girl in the face. He laughed a little.

"That's weird. I'm in 14G, on the third floor." Diana said, frowning. "Isn't that a joined dormitory?"

"Yeah," Caine said, "All the even numbers are joined dorms. Why?"

"I never get a joined dorm. They _can't_ give me a joined dorm." Diana said defiantly and stalked over to the dorm master's desk.

"God," Drake sighed. "What a princess."

"I know." Caine breathed, but he was thinking of a totally different version of "Princess". Which brought him a mental picture of Diana in a skimpy, fluffy, sexy princess dress. He sighed.

"Caine, are you not over Diana yet?" Drake whispered loudly.

"I'm… good." Caine whispered back.

"So you're still totally _smitten_ with her." Drake said.

"Since when do you use the word smitten?"

"Since when do I not?"

Diana huffed back over. "I'm in a joined dorm this year. With some girl called Brianna, who's _twelve._" She said, not bothering to hide her disdain toward the girl she hadn't even met.

"So, we going up to the dorms or what?" Caine said, trying to carry his suitcase, backpack, and Diana's suitcase at the same time up the stairs. He fell to the ground.

Drake laughed.

"Why don't you take a bag, Drake?" Diana asked, sickly sweet. Drake grabbed Diana's suitcase and brought it up the stairs. Caine had to hand it to him, the boy was strong.

After a while and some struggle, the three of them were on the third floor of Coate's Academy, standing in front of 14G, Diana's room. Diana knocked on the door, and then opened it.

It was a nice room, Caine had to admit. The walls were a pale blue, and the beds were with light green and pink bedspreads. There was a bathroom with a shower and full length mirror, a living room with two couches and a coffee table, and a tiny kitchen, as well as the bedroom.

"Well, it looks nice." He offered. Diana just huffed and put her two suitcases in front of one of the dressers, and plopped her heavy purse onto one of the beds.

"Here, let's go to your room." She said, wanting to leave the room which she still resented for being made for two people.

So the three of them made it over to 28B, which (To Caine's happiness and to Drake and Diana's dismay) happened to be just down the hall to 14G.

Their dorm was all yellow, with yellow beds, walls, and dressers.

"It looks like somebody puked happiness in here." Drake said disgustedly, throwing his small duffel onto the bed that was closer to the door.

"I like it." Caine said indifferently, walking out the door. "Now come on, there's no class today, let's go down to Perdido or something and have some fun."

The three started the long walk to Perdido, but were only about a few steps down the worn path before they were stopped by a middle aged Asian woman with a pinched-up face.

"Names?" She announced loudly with a Chinese accent.

Caine rolled his eyes. "Why do you want to know?" he asked defiantly.

"I am the counselor of this school, and I want your NAMES." The woman said.

So there was a new counselor. "Fine then," Caine said lazily. "I'm Caine, and this is Drake and Diana."

The woman's narrow eyes widened. "Caine Soren? Diana Ladris? Drake Merwin?" She asked, scared.

It was a little creepy that she knew their last names. "Yeah." Caine replied to her.

"You come with me." The woman motioned.

Diana gave Caine a weird look as he started to follow the woman. Drake shrugged and followed, and Diana came after him.

Once they were all in the counselor's office they were all so used to being sent to, the woman sat down.

"My name is Ms. Yoo." She said, looking at the three of them. "I have heard of you."

"How touching." Drake said sarcastically. Mrs. Yoo looked taken aback.

"You are Drake. Sadist. You don't like Diana Ladris." She said.

"Huh. Never heard it put that way." Diana scoffed, shrugging.

"And you are bad girl. Bully." said.

"Most people say that after they meet me, but okay." Diana said, smiling. This was unlike her, this type of humor, because she usually tried the "cute little girl" aspect before anything else. But this woman, , already seemed to know all about her, so it made sense.

"Caine Soren." said, looking at some papers. "Arrogent, bullying, talks back, and wants to control."

"Yeah?" Caine said. It was a half-joke, something that you could only get if you thought about it.

"The last counselor at this school" began Mrs. Yoo.

"Mr. Bailey." Drake and Diana said together. They'd been in this office far too many times.

"Yes, he resigned from this job because he claimed it was too difficult. I am said to be one of the best counselors in California. It is my duty to make all the students in this school happy and safe." She looked at Drake on the last word pointedly.

"I don't see why you're talking to us," Caine said, too sweetly.

"Yes, , all I'd like from you is for you to behave. It is your friends that I would like to talk to." The counselor said. "You may go."

Caine glared at Diana and Drake before stalking out the door. "I'll be in our room, Drake." He said.

Diana looked at expectantly, while Drake tried to ignore her altogether.

"Sit down." instructed, pointing to a small couch in the corner of her office. "This may take a while."

Diana sighed loudly. She slumped over to the couch and sat down daintily, straightening the white tank top she was wearing. Since there was no school that day, she didn't have to wear the ugly uniform they were usually all put in. Drake followed her, and sat down beside her. The couch was small, and touching each other was inevitable, to both of their dismays. plopped herself down on a large armchair opposite the couch.

"So," She said, staring at them. "You too have been in this office plenty of times before."

Drake snorted. "Hell yeah we have." He murmured.

"Language," Diana mocked.

sighed. "I can see why." She muttered.

"Hey!" said Diana.

"No offense meant, of course." tried to assure her. "Anyway, the bottom line is that you two need to learn to be nice to each other, so as to not disrupt your classmates and teachers. And one of you could get very hurt, you know."

Diana fingered the small scar on her thigh, revealed by her short jean shorts, from where Drake had used his favourite knife. He'd laughed then. He wasn't laughing now.

"Your point?" Asked Drake, sounding bored.

"I would like you, and , to be kind to the other this year. If you get sent to my office again, we may have to take bigger measures. Understood?"

Diana pouted. "You have no idea how Drake is! Do you see this scar? It's-"

"Ah, Diana?" Drake cut her off. "Why don't we leave and discuss this?"

"Goodbye you two. Be nice to each other." waved goodbye. The two teenagers stepped out of the office and began to climb the stairs to the third floor.

"I CANNOT believe this!" Diana exploded. "This is cruel, it's unfair, and it's just downright RUDE."

"I think we can take is as a learning experience." Said Drake. "You know, make it into a game, or a contest."

"Like… Who can be nicest the longest?" Diana said, confused.

"More like, who can make the other crack." Drake corrected. Of course, he would have the mean version of it.

"Okay." Diana replied. "Rules are either of us can go however far we want, as long as it isn't _mean,_ so to speak."

"And loser has to … to…" Drake struggled, trying to think up a cruel punishment. Then he grinned. "Wear whatever the winner chooses for them every day for a week." That would _kill_ Diana.

"AND they have to hand out candy at lunch while singing a song of the other's choice." Diana finished. That would definitely kill Drake.

"Deal." Drake said. "Starting now."

They shook on it, and as they walked down the hallway to Drake and Caine's dorm, Diana grabbed Drakes hand.

She wouldwin this for sure.


	2. Chapter 2: Getting ready

**So, I don't see why I get like 20 people that read the fanfic, yet one that reviews it. I swear, just a small note, even just saying "Good" or something makes my day. Or any author's day. So just click the little button at the bottom please. Then I'll love you. **

Drake stepped into his dorm, only to be bombarded by Caine.

"What did she say? What was that all about?" He asked over and over again until Drake clamped a hand over his mouth.

"She wants Ladris and me to get along better." Drake snorted, not bothering to tell him about the bet. It would be more of a hit to Caine if he didn't know what was going on.

Caine laughed. "That's not going to happen any time soon."

Drake shook his head, but his mind was whirring. Did he want to go farther with Diana than hate? Or was what they had more of a flirtatious mind game? Ugh. He didn't want to think about it.

As Diana opened the door to 14B, a red-headed girl was standing there, putting clothes into the dresser by the bed that didn't have all of Diana's stuff all over it.

"Hi," Said the girl, hearing the door open. "I'm Brianna."

Diana just stood there, not believing that she had to share a room with _this_ girl. She had a freckled face, and brown eyes, and a tallish runner's build, with muscular legs and skinny arms. Brianna had a large chest for a 12-year-old, and she looked to not care about it, wearing a green shirt that had a dinosaur on it and jeans.

"Uhh…. What's your name?" Brianna asked awkwardly. Diana realized that she had just been standing there like an idiot.

She flipped her dark hair over one shoulder and lifted her chin up high. "My name is Diana." She said, with her usual air of arrogance.

"Cool." Brianna turned away and continued unpacking.

"Is this your first year?" Diana asked loudly.

Brianna rolled her eyes. "No, I've been here a year. I had some bad grades, so my parents sent me to _this_ freakshow."

"Huh." Diana replied, before turning to her overlarge purse. She unzipped it, and pulled out her laptop. Maybe she could do some online shopping before….

"You know we're supposed to go downstairs to get our uniforms and schedules and lockers for this year." Brianna said in that know-it-all way. "You might want to go now, since, ya know, school starts tomorrow and everything."

"Yeah, I guess." Diana said, but Brianna barely heard it, since she was already whisking out the door.

_Might as well._ Diana thought, leaving her dorm yet again. She walked down the hall to 28B, and didn't even bother to knock. She just walked right in.

To see Drake in jeans (that's it, no shirt) on the floor with Caine on top of him.

"TELL ME!" Caine yelled, holding Drake's arms behind his back. Drake flicked his elbow, catching Caine in the stomach, and Caine lost his breath, giving Drake time to get the upper hand.

"What is going ON?" Diana shouted, appalled. Both boys, who hadn't noticed her walk in, flicked their heads up and (almost comically) their eyes widened at the same time.

"Diana." said Caine, getting up and brushing his thin black sweater off. "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to know if you guys wanted to go down and get lockers and schedules." Diana replied, "But what was _that?_"

Caine's face reddened, but Drake answered her question first. "Caine here wanted to know what said exactly while we were in her office. And when I said that she wanted us to be kinder to each other, he didn't believe me. So, he tackled me while I was trying to change out of the shirt that he had already drenched with water."

Diana couldn't help but stare at Drake's bare chest. "Uh huh," She said absentmindedly.

Drake pulled on a shirt and walked to the door, and ended up very close to her. He grabbed her hand.

"Ready to go?" He asked, standing so close she could smell his minty breath.

Two could play at this game.

"If you'll be with me," Diana breathed, standing on her tiptoes so her mouth could briefly touch his. She felt him stiffen from his close stance just behind her.

Caine just stood there, appalled. There was nothing he could say to this. Nothing.

"Well, we'd better go!" said Diana, clapping her hands together and marching out the door. The two boys followed her, only a little distance behind.

When they got down the stairs, they followed bright red and orange signs to the lunch room, which had been transformed into a back-to-school area.

Diana glided over to the first table, which had locker numbers and combinations. That was one thing she could count on to not have with Caine and Drake. They always did it by last name, so she would be with the other M's this year, like always.

"Locker 178" Caine said. "In the math hallway."

"209, Science hall." Drake replied. Diana breathed a sigh of relief.

"I have locker 467, language hall. I'm pretty sure it's all the way across the school from you guys." she said, secretly happy that she wasn't anywhere near these two.

"Oh." Caine said, sounding sad. "Let's go get our schedules then." He led them over to the next table, which was full of schedules. He told the teachers manning the station their names, and got three bright green sheets of paper. He handed two of them to Drake and Diana.

The three of them studied their papers, and Diana was the first to speak up. "First period trigonometry with Mr. Arbin, second period science with Rowan, third P.E, crap, fourth Social studies with Ms. Keewan, fifth astronomy with Gellar, sixth Language arts with , and seventh French with ."

"You're taking astronomy as an elective?" Drake asked in disbelief.

"My parents thought it would be better for me than drama this year." Diana responded, obviously not agreeing with her parents.

"Is that because you ripped Ethan's shirt off last year when he took your line?" he asked drily.

"No, it couldn't have been that…" Diana replied in a singsong voice.

Caine, who hadn't spoken in a while, said simply, "I only have social studies with you. How'd you even get into trigonometry, anyway?"

Diana shrugged. "Passed the test, I guess."

Drake shook his head. "This can't be right. They never give me classes with you."

"What do you mean?" Asked Diana.

"They put me in science, social studies, language arts, and French with you. I didn't even sign _up_ for French."

"What the Hell?" Diana asked, and grabbed his schedule. He was right. Drake had all her classes, except for first period Health, third period Algebra B, and fifth period video media. "That's weird."

Caine took Drake's schedule from Diana. "Huh… Let's see… I've got Algebra and Social Studies with you."

"What electives did you take?" Diana wanted to know.

"Photography and drama. I thought I'd be with you. Now I'm just stuck with the drama freaks. Great." Caine said. Diana sighed inwardly. Caine would never be a good actor, even if he was a fantastic liar.

They all went to the table to find their pre-purchased Coates uniform.

"I can't wait to start school." Drake said with no emotion.

**Alright, I know it's short, and I know it's boring, but I just had to get something on the site. I'll try to add another chapter soon. **


	3. Chapter 3: A meeting at night

**It's been forever, I'm so sorry, but I've been under a lot of pressure and I'm writing two other fanfics and this is only my second priority but here, I love reviews and readers and dragons:**

The night before school would start for every student at Coates Academy, Drake Merwin sat in the hallway in front of dorm 17B. This particular spot held meaning to him; he'd been sitting in this very spot every time he'd had trouble sleeping at Coates.

He remembered the first time he'd sat here, the night before his first ever day at the Academy. He hadn't been able to sleep, and his room, where he was alone, had been scaring him. As much as he tried to act like the uncaring boy, there was still a part of him that craved a companion. There's no such thing as a human who doesn't have that craving, no matter if you're a beautiful bully girl, a boy who wants to rule the world, or a sadistic teenager.

Everyone had the craving.

But Drake had never gotten anyone, he'd tried to act aloof and uncaring towards anyone that came close to him. And it's not like people would want to get all up and personal with him even if he was nice, nobody wants the sadist.

Then there was that one night, a night about five months into that first year, when Drake had been sitting out on the plastic carpet with his head in his hand, trying to ignore the pounding in his head, and sorting out all the thoughts that hadn't allowed him to sleep that night. He was failing a lot of his classes, his teachers expecting much more from him than he could do, all except for his Language Arts teacher, who had been at the time. She believed in Drake, loved his writing, and helped him with all of his classes, even if he wasn't failing in hers.

But that night, Drake had been trying to unravel the mental knot in his head when a strange boy had walked up to him. It had to be two AM or so, and this boy was just striding right up like it was the middle of the afternoon!

"The whole reason you have a dorm is so that you can sleep in it, you know." The boy had said. Drake remembered looking up and sneering at the boy.

"I know that." He had responded icily.

"You ought to be in there, asleep, then."

Drake didn't like this boy. "Then what are you doing awake?"

"I was going to go on a late-night stroll through the school grounds, but it seems you have messed up my evening. Would you like to come anyway?" The boy said. Drake had been interested in the way he talked, like he was with the nobility of Britain.

"Sure, whatever." Drake replied.

"I'm Caine, by the way. Caine Soren." The boy said, reaching one of the few windows in the hallway, and slipping out of it.

"Drake Merwin." Drake said, clambering out the window a lot less gracefully than Caine had.

"Well Drake. Are you interested at all at becoming my second-in-command?" Caine had said to him.

Drake remembered nodding, and then the years since then had all been full of Caine.

And here Drake sat, on the same spot of carpet as always, trying to clear his head. Caine had never met him out here since that one night, the night they met. In fact, Drake hadn't seen anybody in his late-night meetings with his corner of the hallway since then. Nobody liked to wander the hallways at night, with good reason. Everybody knew that Coates was for the odd kids, so who knows what-or who- roams the halls at night?

So imagine Drake's surprise when a tall, lean figure approached him.

She watched Drake's head jerk up, his hand flying to his belt. She had always found that odd about him-he slept in his clothes. Always. Even if it meant having to change into a Coates uniform the next day. Tonight he was wearing his blue jeans and t-shirt from earlier today, the shirt she had watched him pull on.

"What are you doing here?" She hissed at him. He was sitting here, in _her_ spot, the spot that she went to whenever she couldn't sleep. Every time she couldn't sleep at Coates, she went to this spot, the spot right down the hall from Caine's first dorm. He had originally mentioned that he had been in this spot before, right after he'd met Drake, and one night, Diana needed a friend, so she waited in the spot.

She'd waited.

And waited.

Caine had never come for her. But sometimes, over the years she'd been at the Academy, she came here when he couldn't sleep. The spot, for some reason, had this wonderful smell to it. It would sound weird if Diana tried to explain to anyone else, but it smelled comforting, like something she could never put her finger on.

"Me? What am _I_ doing here? What are YOU doing here?" Drake whispered back angrily. He stood up to his full height, taller than Diana, but Diana's stance was much more confident, so she made up for the height difference between them.

"I," she began angrily, "am going to the spot that I go to every night that I can't sleep."

"Is this some sort of joke?" Drake asked unhappily.

"What are you talking about, Merwin?"

"This is MY spot, not yours. It's right outside my old dorm; I'm out here all the time."

"It's where Caine told me he'd be."

"Caine's never out here."

"No," Diana replied softly, sadness edging her tone, "He's not."

Drake suddenly felt a random pang of sadness for Diana. Here she was, trying to be the queen on the outside, where on the inside she was just trying to stay above the waves of life.

Diana must have seen it on his face, and her face showed a little puzzlement before Drake's guard snapped up again.

He made as if to step around her, and she gratefully let him go. But there were loud footsteps heading near them, heavy footsteps that could only belong to one thing: Security.

"Crap!" Drake hissed. "We're not supposed to be out here!"

"What do we do?" Diana replied, whispering quickly.

"Hope he doesn't notice us." Said Drake, flattening himself against the wall, Diana under him. He'd never been this close to anyone before, and it just reminded him about how much he wished he had someone.

The Security guard walked into the stretch of hallway they were in, shining his flashlight everywhere.

"Must be a new precaution, it's never happened before." Drake breathed in Diana's ear, his breath tickling the side of her head. His breath smelled minty and sweet, with an edge of his personal smell, which was a little spicy and a little salty with sweet mixed into one. Not bad at all, in Diana's opinion.

But why would they add security guards to Coates? There was no difference between the odd kids last year and the odd kids this year. Is it that too many had snuck out? But the leaders of the Academy should know that these kids, of any, will be able to go through any defenses they have against them sneaking out at night.

But the problem now was that the guard was about to find them. Diana racked her mind, trying to figure out any way to take the two of them, her and Drake, out of this predicament.

As the security guard was upon them, Diana did the only thing that came up to her blank mind at the moment.

"No, Drakey, I can't do that for you!" She shouted at him. Probably not her best idea, but it would have to work for now. The security guard jumped and turned towards them. She pretended not to notice him.

"What?" Drake spluttered. Diana sighed and jabbed him in the stomach with her elbow, hoping he got the message.

"When I told you I'd go out with you, I never said I'd do _that_ with you!" Diana said.

Drake kind of got the message. But he couldn't let Diana win this fake argument. "Diana, you're always obsessed with school and pleasing your parents and everything, you have to live a little!" None of that was true, in his opinion Diana lived a bit _too_ much, always having a boyfriend for about a month or two at most until Caine or she scared him away.

Diana was pleased that Drake caught on. "That's what you said earlier, Drakey, and I agreed with you. But I never said that I would do something like this with you. I'll live, I definitely will, but I'm not old enough for what you want me to do!"

The security guard, that had just been staring at them this whole time, let out a little "hey" that was so sad that Diana probably wouldn't have heard it if she wasn't listening for it.

She might as well play up the scared girl aspect though, so she let out a little scream.

The security guard jumped, and Diana put a hand over her heart, looking scared out of her wits. Drake quickly decided to sell the story by putting his arms around her, looking like it was instinct. She pulled closer to him, totally playing the scared girl with her boyfriend that she was going for.

"You aren't supposed to be out here…" The guard said quietly, weakly.

"Sorry, but we just couldn't meet inside the dorm, because, you know, Drakey wanted to, but I didn't…" Diana trailed off, sounding embarrassed. Drake rolled his eyes, although nobody saw it in the darkness and shadow that they were cloaked in.

"You two had better go back to your own dorms." He told them, trying to sound stern.

"Oh of course! Yes, we will. Come on, Diana," Drake pulled her along, towards their dorms.

The security guard took notes of their names: Diana and Drake. He would look them up in the morning.

**Yep, so here it is! It took me two freaking hours to write because I'm really ADD today. Zork is too much fun, I swear.**


	4. Chapter 4: Show time

**+Updating again, although I wish I could be doing my SYOT… dammit I need characters.**

**I'm rereading the Gone series, and I'm on Lies, and I forgot that Caine eats Panda's dead body… nasty. **

**Yup. Soooooo**

Drake woke up with his alarm at 6:30 in the morning. Coates Academy started at 7:42 AM every day, the warning bell ringing at 7:37. Drake had been woken up by the warning bell a few times, and had to miss breakfast on those days. "Oblivious days", he called them.

He rolled out of bed and onto the floor, the cool air of the dorm waking him up. The cold carpet reminded him of his episode with Diana last night. He tried to shove it down in his mind; he didn't need that right now. He had some school to go to.

Caine was already awake, buttoning up his Coates blazer. It was an ugly shade of maroon, as always, and had the Coates crest emblazoned on the left side.

"Come on Drake, do you want breakfast or not?" asked Caine impatiently. Drake got up off of the floor and took off his shirt and jeans, sliding into his tan pants, white button down, blazer, and tie. He tugged at the tie.

"I forgot how annoying these things were." He muttered, stepping into his black converse. Well, that was something. This year they stopped making students buy special shoes, because the Academy didn't want to order all those pairs of shoes anymore, and it was the number one thing kids grew out of.

His dorm mate whisking out the door, Drake grabbed his already packed backpack and stumbled out behind Caine.

They met a snappy, tired Diana in the cafeteria, already eating a plate of eggs. She was wearing her pleated skirt, calf-high socks, blazer, white shirt, and tie, like every other girl in the room. She had on some black eyeliner, meant to hide her tired eyes, but anyone could see that Diana was just about asleep.

"Hullo." She mumbled as the two boys slid in next to and across from her. Drake picked up a fork and started shoveling eggs and sausage into his mouth. Caine looked at him in disgust and ate much more neatly.

"Hey." Drake said with his mouth full. At Diana's repulsed look, he swallowed. "You look nice today."

She rolled her eyes, suddenly remembering the contest they had going. "As do you. Maroon fits you."

"Thankyou."

Caine looked at them, his eyes widening.

"Okay… Okay…. What time is it?" He checked a gold watch on his wrist. "We have two minutes, guys."

"Crap!" Diana shouted, getting a few weird looks from the younger students. "My locker is way far away from here. I've gotta go. Bye Guys." She whisked away, her hair flying out behind her.

Caine sighed. Drake punched him in the arm and his head jerked up.

"Stop playing Lover Boy. We've got a school to rule." He said. It sounded stupid to even his psychopathic ears, but Caine looked genuinely hurt by the comment, so it made an impact, anyway. Both boys stood up and took their separate ways to their lockers.

Diana spun the little black thing on her locker, looking at the code on her hand. _32, all the way around to 45, right to 17… _She tried to memorize her combination. There was a fifth grader above her, which was stupid since she was way taller than him, and he was trying to figure out how to open the locker.

"Will you help me?" He asked, pushing his thick glasses up his nose.

Diana was about to refuse, but the boy was so tiny that she felt she might as well agree. "Sure, whatever." She replied, "What's your combination?"

"24, 34, 4." The little boy said. She put in the combo and opened up his locker. "Thanks!" He said gratefully. "I'm Jack, by the way."

"Cool. I'm Diana." She replied before grabbing her math binder and gliding away to the other side of the Academy, up a flight of stairs, down the math hallway, and into room 211, which had a small black sign that read _Corey Arbin._

She entered the door, and saw her teacher. He was a middle aged man who was tall with greyish brown hair and dark eyes. He had a few wrinkles, but he didn't seem too old, maybe 47 or so.

"Name?" He asked her.

She stared at him. "Diana Ladris." He nodded, put a checkmark on the list in his lap, and pointed to a seat in the middle of the room. "Sit there."

She walked over and sat herself in the chair that he pointed to. Most of the seats were already filled by 11th graders and a few kids a little younger, maybe 9th or 10th grade. Diana seemed to be the youngest there, except for a boy in the front row who might have just been a short 10th grader.

When the bell rang, jumped up from his desk. Every seat in the room was filled now except for one in the far corner of the first row. A boy opened the door and ran to the remaining seat, Mr. Arbin checking his name off of the class list.

"Welcome to 11th grade trigonometry!" The teacher announced. "My name is , and I have been teaching for 7 years. I used to teach 6th grade, but now I prefer the older kids.

The boy next to Diana snickered. She looked at him; he had short blond hair and brown eyes, along with thick eyebrows and pale skin. He wasn't heavy set, but not the skinniest boy she'd ever seen, either. He must have been and eleventh grader. She rolled her eyes and looked up at Mr. Arbin.

"I see I have some younger students in here." He observed, his eyes scanning the classroom. "Raise your hand if you are an eleventh grader."

About 20 of the thirty kids put their hands up.

"Hands down, now put your hand up if you are a tenth grader."

Five hands.

"ninth?"

3 hands.

"Eighth?"

Diana was the only person that raised their hand.

"Any younger than eighth?" Mr. Arbin made is clear that no student in his class was ever under eighth grade.

But the small boy in the front row raised his hand.

"What grade are you in?" asked, confused.

"F-fith, sir." The boy responded. Kids around the room shared glances. Then the boy turned and Diana saw his face. It was Jack, the boy who had the locker above her.

"Seriously?" Muttered the boy next to Diana.

"I know, right?" Diana whispered back. The boy turned to look at Diana. His eyes widened while taking in her striking features. He smiled.

"Yeah. I'm Evan, by the way."

"Diana," Diana replied, smiling back at him. He looked so innocent, so stupid. She could have him wrapped around her little finger in seven minutes, easily.

"Well, Jack, thanks for introducing yourself. Why don't we all do that?" The teacher asked.

So the kids went around and said their names in bored voices. When it was Diana's turn, she flipped her dark hair over her shoulder, catching the girl behind her in the face. "I'm Diana." She said loudly, with a little flair of arrogance. She heard Evan sigh a little bit. Just a little bit. But Diana smiled anyway.

"Evan," he said simply on his turn. Mr. Arbin nodded and looked at the next girl, who had thick greenish glasses and pink braces that clashed terribly with her Coates blazer.

After the whole class had introduced themselves to their peers who didn't really care one way or another, Mr. Arbin cleared his throat.

"And now, of course, it's time for a little pretest." And the whole class groaned on cue.

The older man passed out a test to each student in the room. When Diana received her test, she took one look at it and sighed. It was a very difficult looking test, with lots of variables and triangles on it. She got to work, using her pencil to scratch out the work that she did on her calculator, and eventually the answers.

Finally, she was done. She hadn't realized that she hadn't looked up from the test once during the time she was working. How long had it been? Ten minutes? Twenty? Thirty? Fifty?

Evan was already finished, staring up at the ceiling. He was chewing a piece of gum, she noticed. Surprisingly, nobody had asked for any. Yet.

"Alright everybody! Please pass your tests all the way to the right." Mr. Arbin called when the last student, a boy with bad acne and black hair who looked too stupid to be in this class, had put down his pencil. Diana gave test to the girl on her right, named Keelie, who had blond hair and big blue eyes with a freckled face.

The bell rang.

Diana hopped up from her desk and whisked out the door, checking her schedule to see what was next. Science. This one with Drake, too. She had marked every class that she had with Drake with a little red "D" on it. Just so she could be prepared.

After stopping at her locker again, she made her way over to room 1286, the room that was belonging to the infamous Mrs. Rowan. Everybody said that she was the weirdest teacher in the Academy, and that she used to be one of the students. Most teachers were never students here, as you could imagine, seeing as people that went to the Academy usually ended up as drug dealers or construction workers or pool boys or serving sentences in jail.

As Diana headed into the room, a big sign on the front whiteboard read to look at the seating chart and find yourself on it. Diana scanned the chart, and found herself near the front, off to the right side, next to a boy named Vladimir. Nice name.

Meanwhile, Drake struggled against the flow of kids. It always seemed to him that every student was going the exact opposite way that he was going, and they all were trying to thwart him from getting to his class. He knew he was a little paranoid, but he was a pretty messed up kid anyway, so it didn't matter.

This particular crowd were mostly fifth and sixth graders, kids who weren't afraid of Drake yet. They didn't know any better. It was time for that to change, Drake thought as he kicked a girl, hard. She fell to the ground, clutching her shin. He blew passed her and started pulling kids hair to get them out of his way. They looked up at him painfully, as if they didn't know that anybody could enjoy doing this to people. But Drake had a smile on his face, there was no doubt about it.

When he pushed his way through the doors of the science classroom, Drake had his creepy shark smile plastered on his face. He made a few kids take a step back. Most kids had heard about Drake from others, or had observed his "evil" ways, which were really more sadistic than evil, anyway, and were scared of him. But that was unfair, is his opinion, because there were a few other sadists in the school, he was just the only one that happened to be best friends from the school Overlord.

Stupid Caine. Everything could be traced back to him, if you think about it. This brought another smaller smile to Drake's lips, not his usual shark grin, but a smaller, shyer smile that did more for his looks than baring his teeth and lighting up his eyes.

Drake checked the seating plan: He was near the front of the room, in the very middle. Next to a girl called Amelia, who was already sitting in her seat. He came and sat next to her, throwing his binder down on the table and slumping in the seat. Drake was aware, even though he couldn't see it, of her eyes on her. They probed him, a little scared, but he ignored her to the best of his ability.

A groan to his left. He turned. A girl, at the table directly to his left, had grown. Her body was pretty, he noticed that, and then he studied her face.

Diana! It's Diana, and he was just thinking she was pretty! This was insane! Drake put his head in his hands as Mrs. Rowan started to take roll.

"Hey Drake." Diana said, absentmindedly, while taking out a pencil.

"Hi," Drake replied, trying to refrain from hitting the girl next to him, which was the first thing he wanted to do. But he had learned the hard way that when you do that, you have to go see the counselor, whom he didn't really like. was an annoying woman, someone who Drake wouldn't mind hitting. Or maybe worse than hitting.

"Ladris, Diana?" Rowan called.

Diana raised her hand. "Here!" she said back, batting her eyelashes. The boy next to her sighed. He actually sighed. Diana rolled her eyes and smiled at Drake, as if to say _can you believe him?_ But that would require them to be friends and they weren't friends, what they had was anything but friendship.

Only then did Drake actually hear Rowan calling "Merwin, Drake? Drake Merwin?" over and over again.

"Oh, yeah. Here." Drake said, roughly shooting his hand up.

Diana giggled. Why was she acting like this? Oh, yeah. The contest. To be nice to each other. She was trying to make him crack. And it was working.

It wouldn't work now that he was totally aware of what she was doing.

"Hey Diana," He prompted.

"Mmmmm?" She turned lazily in her seat.

"How was first period?"

"It was okay, how was yours?"

"Alright. But I couldn't stop thinking about how I'd get to see your beautiful face for second period." He almost gagged. But he didn't. Come on Drake, he thought, you can do this.

Diana forced a smile. "Well now you're with me, Drakey." She winked.

"What the Hell?" The girl next to Drake said loudly, overhearing their conversation.


	5. Chapter 5: Real deal

**Hello, lovelies. I know that my updating is quite slow, but when my main character dies in my other story, I should be able to update faster. (I'm talking about **_**Thinking Towards Victory**_**, you can check it out if you like Hunger Games, especially Foxface. And Thresh) Okay, this may or may not be a little too awkward for young readers:  
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Science was boring. But Diana wanted it to last longer, longer, because she'd have to go to P.E next. Drake, however, couldn't wait for second period to end, because his next class wasn't with Diana. But he sure didn't show that. Actually, he made the girl that sat next to him, Amelia, switch seats with Diana, so they were sitting next to each other. Diana had made a small 'icky' face, but then embraced Drake's trying to win, so she sat on his lap.

So, Diana was completely on top of Drake, while the oblivious teacher went on and on about what they would learn this year.

"What do you have next?" Diana whispered in his ear, like it was some sort of sexy secret or something, which it was totally not.

"Math," Drake whispered back. Diana giggled a bit. Amelia stared.

The creep.

The teenage girl ran a soft hand along the side of Drake's face, over the soft bit of stubble that he had noticed was just starting to grow.

The bell rang. Drake and Diana walked out together, since his next class was about the same route to the gym for Diana's P.E.

In the hallway, Diana looked into his eyes, clearly attempting to get a message across. She looked smug, and content. She thought she had one this battle, running a hand along his face.

As squeamish as Drake was around girls, he knew he had to do something to top that. And there was only one thing he could think of. One thing he'd never done with a girl, ever.

He kissed her.

Right in front of the lockers, he kissed her. Wrapped his arms around her waist, just like in the movies.

And to Drake's surprise, she kissed back. Diana was that arrogant, she would stoop even this low to win some dumb bet with him.

Drake was vaguely aware of people staring at them. Oh well, they were in a public area. Might as well make this as intimate as possible.

He didn't like this, this thing he was doing. It wasn't that he didn't enjoy this kissing, but rather that it was with Diana, whom he thought would only be a part of his fantasies.

Did he just think that? Drake shocked even himself. Was Diana ever part of his fantasies? Wait, what fantasies? What the hell?

Vaguely he was aware of Diana forcing his lips open with hers, sliding her arms around his neck, pulling him closer. But it was all like a dream.

For Diana, this whole situation was completely bogus. Here she was, in the hallway, with lockers to her back and Drake plastered to her front. She kind of liked it, she had to admit. For his first time, (since it was rather obvious Drake had never made out with a girl before) Drake was not a bad kisser. Diana had kissed her fair share of guys, naturally, but none of them had quite made her feel like this.

Finally, she had to break away from him. She had no clue how long they had been like that, but all she knew was that she was glad that passing periods were ten minutes the first week of school at Coates. Hey, it was a big school, and a bunch of the fifth and sixth graders never had more than one class before.

Diana, who could never let Drake win, gave him a little kiss on the cheek, and whisked off to gym.

Drake just flipped off all of the onlookers and walked away to math class.

As Diana entered the locker room, there were already a ton of girls already there. She pushed her way to the Locker Arrangement Sheet that was posted on the main wall. She looked down the list to find her locker, and saw the small number '23' next to it. So, Diana wandered over to Locker 23, and found the small pink sticky note with the combination on it. These sticky notes were on every locker, so technically you could just memorize somebody's combination and then take their clothes some time. Maybe she could do that later. But now Diana was almost late for P.E, so she pulled on the canary yellow t-shirt that was in her gym locker, not even bothering to sneer at it, and hustled into her maroon gym shorts, right before sliding out the locker room door and into the gym.

Of course, the gym was packed with the three third-period P.E classes that all were wandering around, but luckily, there were signs above certain areas of the gym that had the grade level P.E classes on them. Diana glided over to the sign in the left corner that said "EIGHTH GRADE" on it.

Meanwhile, Drake was asleep. His math teacher, who had introduced herself as Mrs. Lottingdale, decided to skip introductions and go right to a straight-up lecture. The kids in the class, mostly eighth or smart seventh graders, were zoned out, seeing as they hadn't had a teacher's lecture in about three months. Drake did his famous math class move and fell asleep.

"Mr. Merwin?" a loud voice said, waking Drake up with a snap.

"Hmmmm?" Drake hummed softly.

"Did you just hear what I said or not?" Mrs. Lottingdale said sternly.

"I'm sorry ma'am, I missed it."

The teacher sighed. "I SAID, they want you in the office."

Drake stood up from the desk that was too small for his long legs and grabbed his binder. Without further conversation, he walked out the door and into the deserted math hallway. He knew his way to the office from pretty much every part of the school, from going there so many times. The nice thing about Coates Academy, though, is that you can't get expelled. You can't even get suspended. Well, you could get expelled if you did something really bad, but your parents could just offer some more money to the Academy, and they'd keep quiet about it all. So, really, the worse the kid was, the more money the parents would be paying.

Drake's parents paid a lot of money.

"Hello Eighth Gra-DERS!" The coach, a pudgy, pink man with a small moustache, shouted at the lanky kids in yellow t-shirts with the Coates crest and maroon basketball shorts. He himself was wearing a navy blue tracksuit and a Coates baseball cap. Some kids, namely the skinny bleach-blond girls and lanky football player boys, were snickering. Nobody even knew that they _made_ Coates baseball caps.

"This semester is all about FITNESS!" He shouted.  
>"No duh," Diana said under her breath. A few kids around her snickered.<p>

"So go run around the school!" He bellowed. The kids looked around uncertainly, not knowing if he was joking.

"I SAID, RUN YOU LAZY IDIOTS!" The kids jogged off without a second glance to run the mile around Coates Academy.

Once all the hot and sweaty teens returned to the gym, the coach yelled at them for being too slow.

"And I need a Diana Ladris to go to the office on the double!" Diana, confused, starting walking to the door of the gym. "HUSTLE!" The coach screamed, and she jogged away.

Drake turned the chrome handle of the office that he had been to so many times. He slid his skinny body into the room and shut the lightly-coloured wooden door behind him.

"Hello Drake." the receptionist, an older woman with dark red hair in a high bun, showing pale cheeks and sharp bones. She had teal green glasses perched on her large nose, and she glanced up at him with her large eyes. Of course she knew his name. He knew hers, too.

"Hi Mrs. Anderson," Drake said, swaggering up to the desk. "Mrs. Lottingdale told me to come here."

"Yes, the principal wanted to speak to you and Miss Ladris. Please take a seat while we wait for her." Mrs. Anderson said with no emotion, still typing on her computer.

Drake sat in the floral patterned overstuffed armchair in the corner.

Diana hurried through the halls, weaving her way past classrooms and around corners to the office at the very front of the school. Of course, the gym was at the back, and it took her a while. Finally, she reached the heavy double doors and pulled them over.

The receptionist looked up. She knew Diana well, and didn't like her.

"Miss Ladris." She said coldly. She never called Diana by her first name, only "Miss Ladris".

"Yeah?" Diana retorted angrily. It was the receptionist's fault that she was in her P.E uniform in the middle of the office. She felt as tacky as she did that first day at Coates wearing her uniform.

"The principal wants to see you. Drake, you can go with her." The principal? That was unexpected. But more unexpected was the comment towards Drake. Diana swiveled around, and found Drake asleep in one of the armchairs in the corner.

"I'll get him," She muttered. Diana walked over to Drake, and gently shook his shoulder.

"Hmmm?" He murmured.

"We're going to the principal's office." Diana said sweetly. Drake got up out of the chair and followed her around the corner into Mr. Kotawa, the principal's, office.

He was sitting at his desk, a large, dark skinned man with a shaved head and gold earring in one ear. You would think he was a cool guy, and he probably originally was, just years of being the principal at a school for odd kids took its toll on just about anyone.

"Mr. Merwin, Ms. Ladris, please sit down." He said slowly, indicating the two hard chairs in front of his large desk.


	6. True Colours

**Sorry it took me so long to update! I seriously love reviewers, you guys are awesome, please continue reading this, even though updates are slow. My mum decided to do this thing called "limiting Corbin's screentime", which I really am not enjoying.**

**And if I insulted anyone in this chapter, I'm sorry. It's DIANA, what do you expect?**

The two teenagers shared a puzzled look, then sat down in the chairs directly across from Mr. Kotawa.

Mr. Kotawa slowly shook his head. "What am I supposed to do with you two?" He murmured, rubbing his forehead.

"Uhm, Mr. Kotawa? I don't really know what it is you think we did, but whatever it was, I'm sure it was Drake, not me. I can't remember the last time I broke the rules here at Coates Academy." Diana said, trying to sound as cute as possible. She flicked her dark hair over her shoulder and widened her eyes.

"That's enough, Miss Ladris." The principal said sternly.

Diana sunk back into her chair. Drake bit back a laugh.

"You two… I thought you hated each other?" The adult said, looking both in the eyes.

"Uh, yeah. We do." Drake said, flipping his head so his sandy bangs got out of his bright blue eyes.

"Did." Corrected Mr. Kotawa. "I should have known that teenagers would change this fast, but I thought that it was something else." He murmured, more to himself than anyone else.

"Excuse me?" Diana interjected, a little too loudly.

"First, I get a report from a security guard that you two were found in the hallway alone. At night," He began.

"Damn it." Drake muttered before Diana kicked him under the desk. The boy fell silent.

"And today, I get a report from several students and a few teachers that you two were found, erm, _showing affection_ in the hallway."

"If you're talking about Drake assaulting me-" Diana began.

"Assaulting? I think you enjoyed it just as much as I did!" Drake confronted her.

"You ENJOYED it?" Diana shrieked.

"No, I… That's not what I meant!" Drake yelled, silently cursing himself.

"DRAKE MERWIN! First, you take advantage of my looks, then you drag me out of my dorm at night, and now you exploit me!" said Diana with her nose in the air.

"Take _advantage_ of you, Diana? Really? I thought that I was doing you a _favour_ when you asked me to meet you outside of the dorms. You told me that if I did those things with you, you would give me cash!" Drake yelled, lying with just as much charisma as Diana.

"That is ENOUGH." The principal concluded just as Diana was about to continue her crazy story of Drake the rapist. "I want what really happened."

_Damn._ Diana thought. She knew that making bets was strictly forbidden at Coates Academy for some reason, probably because it was so easy to cheat the Autistic kids, so she made up a random lie that she knew Drake would hate. She put a hand on his leg under the table so he would know not to speak up.

"You see, Mr. Kotawa, the truth is, Drake and me, we're kind of together." She whispered the last word.

"Together?" The principal was appalled.

"We just didn't want the other students to know about us, you see. Everyone thought we hated each other, so we wanted people to just keep thinking that. But sometimes we just can't help it, like in the hall today. You see, Mr. Kotawa, I… I think we're in love. No, actually, I _know_ we are."

The Japanese-American principal's caramel face reddened considerably. "Uh, well…"

Diana kicked Drake under the desk. Immediately, Drake's posture snapped up and he rushed to continue Diana's crazy story.

"Uhm, yeah. Over the summer, I went to her house, and-" Drake began, improvising as best as he could. But Diana was the actor of the two of them, not Drake.

"I thought you two lived in different states." Mr. Kotawa sounded skeptical.

"Yeeeeah, I thought this was so important that I got on a plane from Los Angeles to Tucson, to go to Diana and tell her that I loved her." Drake said, trying to sound 'in love'.

Diana, ever the actress, gave a big sigh and almost looked like she was wiping a tear from one of her large brown eyes. "That was so romantic." She sighed, looking into Drake's eyes like they held the secret of life in them.

Drake was no good at this stuff. He squirmed in his seat.

Mr. Kotawa couldn't stand this. "Alright, alright. Could you two, just, like, _not_ be so, erm, _conspicuous_? If you two don't stop distracting the other students, we're going to have to not allow you to be together."

Diana, who had been inching towards Drake until finally she was on his lap, hugging his neck, almost toppled off of him. "What?" She almost-shrieked.

"I mean, I'm sorry….Uh, you two need to abide by school rules, okay?" The principal sighed.

Diana nodded, her eyes wide, and Drake did the same.

"You two may be dismissed back to your third period classes." He said. The two teenagers snapped up and left the office, making sure to intertwine their hands as they pushed out of Mr. Kotawa's room. They left the principal rubbing his temple, trying to figure out how he had let these two kids cheat him like this.

In the large front hallway, Diana didn't bother to unclasp their hands.

"That was some pretty creative lying back there." Drake commented, only keeping his hand with hers because of their bet.

"Don't give all the credit to me; your little 'flew across the state' story tied it all together. Of course, you could really be a much better actor, but it was alright for somebody who kind of sucks at improv." Diana replied.

Drake dropped Diana's hand to stretch his own upward in a stretching motion. "Do we really have to go back to class?" He said, yawning. "I really don't like math."

"It really depends." Diana said, shrugging, "Do you think you can break into the locker room?"

The sadist grinned. "Seriously, Diana? That's a little offensive."

After using one of Diana's bobby pins, the wad of gum from his mouth, and a lot of cussing, Drake got the girl's locker room door open. Diana strode into the room to her gym locker, and crouched down to open the metal locker. She didn't realize that Drake followed her into the room, and started to slip off the too-big Coates Academy P.E uniform shirt, revealing a lacy black bra.

"Augh!" Drake yelped, falling over behind one of the islands of lockers. Diana's head whipped around, and landed on the person she shared the room with.

"Drake!" She whisper-shouted, covering her bra with the too-big shirt.

"Augh, why did you do that?" Drake mumbled, staying on the floor.

"You were… I was… Drake!" Diana couldn't think of anything else to say to him. "You just can't… You can't _do_ that!" Her words came out too high pitched, too warbly, too weird for her taste.

"You know what? I can! And I just did! We love each other, remember? Yeah!" Drake responded. It wasn't his best comeback, he admitted to that, but it was alright for the situation.

"Drake? Shut up, okay? I know we have this bet and everything, but just look away or something so I can change!" Diana yelled.

"Don't yell, idiot." Drake snarled, before turning his back on Diana so she could finish undressing and getting back into her clothes.

"You can look now." Diana said indifferently once she was done. Drake turned around and saw Diana with her arms crossed, wearing her Coates uniform once again.

"You know maroon really isn't a good look for you." Drake commented, nodding at Diana's uniform.

"That's one thing we have in common." Diana agreed drily.

Drake shrugged his shoulders.

"What are we going to do now?" Diana said. She'd never been one to hate breaking the rules, and she could always talk her way out of it. But this was different. She was standing in the girl's locker room with the boy she supposedly was madly in love with, wearing her Coates Academy uniform in the middle of third period, when she was supposed to be in PE.

She wasn't sure how to get out of this one if they were caught.

"I'm thinking, maybe we could go out." Drake suggested.

Diana opened her mouth in shock, then closed it with a snap. "What?" She whispered.

"Like, go… to the town." Drake stammered. Damn Diana had to ruin everything.

"Oh. Good idea. I'd recommend maybe like not going in our uniforms, honestly." Diana said, trying to looking bored to cover up her embarrassment.

"Well, yeah. I mean, I was saying after we go to our dorms and stuff, to, you know, change."

She nodded, then led Drake out of the locker room, glad that she didn't have to go back to Gym Class.


	7. Chapter 7: Diana can not write plays

**Hi. I thought I gave up this story, but then I reread it (because that's how bored I was, rereading my own stories) and decided I kind of want to write it again. Also, this is because I'm procrastinating on my Hunger Games story. But I really doubt you care so why am I still talking…**

**PS It's a little inappropriate near the end, sorry.**

"Who knew they left all the school's exits locked during the day?" Drake wondered aloud, trying the third door he'd found. The pair had been like this for the past ten minutes, trying to find a way out of the building. It didn't help that they had to keep ducking down in front of the classrooms, in order to avoid being seen by the other students.

"It's gotta be some sort of safety hazard. I mean, what if there's a fire or something? How are we supposed to get out of the building?" Diana asked, talking to nobody.

And who had known indeed, that the doors were locked for two specific reasons. And who would have known that said reasons were standing in front of exit 23 (as can be referenced on the Coates Academy Map as being in the Language Hall on the far side of the west wing) at the moment.

And if you're too dim to get what I'm trying to say, Drake and Diana were those reasons.

Because actually, the exits weren't always locked. They happened to have a system in the office where they can autolock any door at any time. This autolock system worked especially well for when, say, you happen to look at the brand new security cameras placed strategically around every hallway, and you see two of your least favorite students walking towards an exit.

So, let's just say that Drake and Diana weren't the only ones who knew that they were walking around Coates Academy.

Both Drake and Diana jumped at the loud sound of a bell.

The bell that any student worth anything would know marked the end of third period.

Students started pouring out of the hall's doors, their minds jumbled with verb infinitives in Spanish and French and Greek and Japanese.

"Hello, students." A voice came over the intercom. All students looked up despite of themselves, even knowing they couldn't see the speaker. "I hope you've been enjoying either your first day back at Coates Academy, or to some, your first day ever at Coates Academy. This is your principal speaking. I just want to remind you to have a great day, and make sure to _stay in your classrooms, _Miss Ladris and Mr. Merwin."

The two students in question looked at eachother with wide eyes. The other students around them mostly looked indifferent as they hustled off to fourth period, but they got a few "ooohhhhs" from the students who knew them and were brave enough to talk to them.

"Um, so fourth period it is?" Diana said sheepishly, rubbing her hair, a habit that she picked up when she was nervous. Nobody knew about it, because they all thought Diana Ladris couldn't be bothered with fear, that she was always just checking her hair with her hand.

Although they had the class together, Drake stalked off in the other direction. He mumbled something along the lines of "going to my locker" before disappearing and leaving Diana in the hallway alone.

Meanwhile, Drake was going in some direction. He didn't know which. It might have been to his locker, or it might have been in the opposite direction. All he could think about was Diana Ladris.

He hated her. Hated her with all his might. Or so he thought.

Drake remembered the first time he'd met her, in PE when they were young. He wanted to hit her, because she was the only person in the class that looked good in the uniform. But the counselors had warned him that hitting people could get him in loads of trouble.

"You're so fat," he'd said. It wasn't true, Diana was slender, with just the right curves, even in sixth grade.

"Okay," she'd replied simply. He wanted to egg her on, though.

"When you run, your face looks like a tomato." He'd given her shoulder a push.

"Tomatoes don't have arms and legs," Diana had said, wiggling said appendages.

"Your hair looks disgusting."

"At least it can help you distinguish as to whether I'm a tomato or not."

That was the exact moment when Drake had fallen in love with her.

Wait, what? 

Diana found herself in Mrs. Keewan's fourth period social studies class, sitting in the back row. This teacher couldn't care less about where you sat on the first day, as she'd lovingly told the class of bored eighth graders, but soon there would be a seating chart, just let her get to know the class first.

Drake hadn't shown up.

Mrs. Keewan was an overweight old lady with bags of skin rolling off her neck, much like a chicken or turkey. Her hair was up in a bun with two chopsticks hanging out, and two scruffy grey curls on either side of her face. She was one of those women that wore insane earrings, the ones today had blue stones down about three inches, sagging her already-sagged earlobes. Her nails were really long, her sweater set too small, and her shoes too tall.

What a great teacher.

"Diana Ladris?" She called.

"Here," Diana said lazily, looking up at the fat woman.

That's when she zoned out.

She remembered when Drake had first met her in PE that one fateful year. They were next to each other, because in PE you had to line up by last name, and, well, "L" and "M" are pretty close together in the alphabet. So, Drake Merwin and Diana Ladris sat side by side for a whole semester of PE.

Immediately he had begun to insult her, but she just warded off the insults with dexterity. She was used to her fair share of jealous people. Besides, she had the curves no other sixth grader had, and that had to get some attention.  
>But all she could notice as she kept retorting to Drake's snide comments was how his sandy hair fell into his forehead in a gentle slope, how his bright eyes lit up when it was time to run, how he smiled, showing his braces with no humiliation when he finished running around the school first.<p>

She kind of liked him. Just a little bit.

But Diana Ladris couldn't like anybody, she could only break hearts. So she masked love with hate. That's all you can do when you're Diana Ladris.

The door opened loudly, breaking Diana out of her thoughts. Into the classroom walked none other than Drake Merwin, holding a binder and looking extremely wet.

Wait. Extremely wet?

Drake's sandy hair looked more brown than anything else, sticking down to his forehead and dripping onto the broad shoulders of his Coates uniform, which happened to be dry.

"Hey, sorry I'm late. I'm Drake Merwin." He said, carefully avoiding talking about why he was late.

"Alright, um, Mr. Merwin, I won't mark you tardy, because it's the first week of school, but please try to be in class before the bell rings next time?"

Drake nodded.

"You can sit down in any open seat."

Drake marched to the back of the classroom and sat directly next to Diana.

Of course.

He leaned into her, so he was hovering over her desk. "Hey." He said.

"Drake, you're dripping all over my desk!" Diana hissed.

"Oops." He wrung his hair out on his own desk, and started staring at the teacher, who was going over the class syllabus he didn't get a copy of (not that he really cared, anyway).

A piece of paper was slid to his wet desk. Drake looked down.

On it, Diana's cutesy round handwriting read _"care to explain why you look like a wet dog in a dry Coates Uniform?"_

Drake passed the note back. In his serial killer slanty handwriting, he said _"Nope"_

"_Boyfriends tell their girlfriends everything."_

"_Still nope."_

"_Don't make me tell them about how you assaulted me, remember."_

"_Fine. I took a walk, okay?"_

"_What?"_

"_Went out in my normal clothes for like five minutes, walking around the courtyard, ran into a security guard, he splashed me with a hose, and made me go back."_

"_Uh huh…"_

"_No seriously. He was watering the plants out there."_

"_Okay then."_

"Miss Ladris and Mister Merwin, would you care to read that note out loud?" The fat teacher said.

Diana hastily erased a little, then scribbled a couple sentences, mimicking Drake's handwriting and her own, before saying "Of course! Drake has dyslexia," he kicked her at this, "Would _you_ like to read it?"

Mrs. Keewan's eyes narrowed, but she took the note anyway. After reading the first couple lines, she shook her head.

"Read it!" Drake said, "We were just randomly passing a note." Of course, he was oblivious to Diana's quick scribbles on the paper.

"Very well…." Mrs. Keewan probably just didn't want to look weak in front of all these students, "I'll read it."

She cleared her throat.

"Care to explain why you look like… an, er, _sexy_ wet dog in a Coates uniform?"

"Nope, I'll just let you imagine.  
>"You know I hate imagining, I like to get physical." Mrs. Keewan gulped.<p>

"Don't make me tell everyone how you…. Assaulted me?" Her eyes got big.

"Fine, I took a shower." She continued reading. Drake rolled his eyes. Clearly Diana was an actress, not a playwright.

"Hot."

The teacher's face got really red as the class roared with laughter.

"Um, everyone can just keep reading the syllabus by themselves."

**Yes, it sucks. I wanted to try writing again. So please don't blame me that I'm a little rusty with this, but maybe leave a review telling me how I can make it better?**


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